October 30, 2006

Well I am sitting here remembering where I was 29 years ago today. That was the day I became "Mommy" for the first time. Wow where did that time go. No one in my family thought I would ever have kids.....

Norbie is off to Victoria to get educated - again. After a day and a half struggle to get to Victoria they managed to get a chopper in as the fog broke finally. What is it about the fog in October...I keep thinking its August that's our foggy month. The best laid plans are always messed up by Mother Nature - especially out on the Lights.

After a foggy run of days the wind picked up and we had a "bit of a wind" move in. Yesterday was certainly windy but sunny so it managed to sweep some of the cobwebs out. Today its sunny again so I will go back out to the garden and continue putting the beds to "sleep".

We have had no further sighting of the bear up here on the station, although Norbie did see him back down below by the Canoe Run. The berries around here are all gone so I guess maybe he has headed into the bog to pick cranberries. Now with the weather getting cooler at night the cranberries will be ready for humans to pick as well.

We got the good news last week that we will be able to go the The Big Smoke for Christmas. I am excited - I don't know why I was even cosidering staying here for the holidays. I know when you live in town its in your face 24/7 but out here one actually misses the hussle and the bussle - it just doesn't feel like Christmas without having family, friends and many ho ho's in your day to day activities. And with no kids on the station "Santa" doesn't come to visit.

When I first came out here the groceries and packages were brought by the "Tender" ship, so Santa would fly with the chopper which would be slinging groceries and supplies and he would bring "goodies" for the kids. All your baking had to be done by that day as you would want to give Santa and the pilot some cookies and a bottle of some "good stuff" was also on hand so you could "warm up" Santa for his long journey. Now none of the Lights on the West Coast of the Island have any kids so Santa doesn't come and our groceries are "thrown" out of the chopper by the pilot who is anxious to get on to the next station as the daylight hours are short.

I have put in my "Christmas order" for baking goods so that I can do up a bit of baking before I head out before the middle of December. I had told Norbie I would bake his Stollen if we weren't going out - looks like store bought Stollen this year.

A while back I wrote a poem on the fog and thought maybe now and again I would post some of my poems - hope you enjoy it.

August 5, 2006 - Cape Beale

The fog moves slowly
Covering the shoreline
Like grey woolen socks
Pulled up firmly against the cold.

The quiet surrounds
Keeping the sounds within
Like a deafness
A quiet which makes sleep welcome.

The scene around is as in a dream
Each movement is clouded
As if walking within the sky
For the fog to leave the shore is an awakening.

Until next time.....

October 18, 2006

Well after a series of foggy days - and one not so foggy today we have rain. Not only do we have rain it has the look and feel of winter coming on. There is something in the air that makes one feel as they walk outside that somehow summer has slipped away and moved on. The few trees that we have on the station that drop their leaves have just about done so. The leaves of the grape vine and honeysuckle that have attached themselves to the rock face have turned yellow and are starting to fall off.

Yesterday was another day that garden work became a priority as I tried to get as much cleared up as possible. The Stellar Jays followed me around and screamed as I cut away some of the branches of the fushia bushes - taking away their hiding places. This year I promised myself that in the fall I would try and clear away the dying plants to save myself the work in the spring. Last spring I worked hard to clean up the areas that hadn't been attended to in the years of my absence. Both Norbie and Ivan think I should wait until spring and do it then. But I like to get ahead of the game as one never knows what spring will bring weather wise and I am not a foul weather gardener.

Chris and Liz left on the 6th of October but not before being treated to some wild life visits. A lone grey whale did a slow swim by - just teasing us with a few blows whilst it swam northward. I can't figure what that was about as a sane grey would be heading south to Baja at this time of year. I haven't seen it since so maybe it just wanted to fill its belly one more time. Sitting on the rocks out front they saw a whole slew of sea lions swimming by - normally one can catch a glimpse of the "dawgs" out front but more likely you hear them barking on their way by or as they sit on Folgers Island soaking up the "sun". A few days before they left they also lucked in to see a pair of transient killer whales doing their sneaky swim by.

I was making dinner and heard a banging on the living room window and there stood Chris - who I thought was asking me what time dinner was - I just waved my hand and said "soon" or something like that. He went away muttering something like - "I can't believe you didn't tell us" which perplexed me until Norbie came in to tell me he was surprised I wasn't outside watching the whales....... Of course I left dinner to cook itself and joined the"kids" to check it out. Chris managed to get a few shots and I added this whale sighting into my book with the others. Early this summer I had muttered that we hadn't seen any KW's this year and now with the earlier sighting in September of 9 residents it was a good "whaling" year for Orcas as wells as Humpbacks and Greys.

The day before Chris and Liz were to leave they decided to go to the beach for one last walk....it seemed like no sooner had they left then they were back red faced and out of breath. As they went to the end of the dock - a habit that I have installed in all of our guests - just to make sure there is not something on the beach you wouldn't want to run into - they noticed a bear down near the "Canoe Run". I guess they decided that was too close for comfort and raced back up the 164 stairs to the safety of the upper station.

I think all and all Liz got a good "wild life viewing" this trip.

This past week we had an unexpected visitor out front. I was talking on the phone with Jac in Yellowknife and heard Norbie calling me over the radio circuit, I asked Jac to hold and answered Norbie. Once again he had forgotten his radio and there was a young black bear in my front garden. (for those who know the last time he called me on a phone was when he forgot his radio and met up with a cougar.....) Anyhow I quickly looked out the window and although I didn't see anything I went around and shut all the doors. Jac insisted I stay on the phone with her until this was done.

Norbie came out of the radio room in time to see the young bear climb into the bushes beside the tower. But this little guy was not done with us yet. He decided he wanted to explore more so he wandered into the back yard area - heading up towards Ivan's back door. We radioed Ivan and told him to close his door - before Ivan could get to his door the little bear moved on to Ivan's basement window and stood up with paws on either side of the window and looked in - at what I haven't a clue. When Ivan opened his door the little fellow quickly jumped down from the yard but slowly mosied through the rest of the yard taking his merry time.

When we thought all was all clear Ivan radioed back to say the bear had returned so we went out cautiously to check it out...... Norbie had the air horn and decided to give it a shot. I think the only one that the horn did anything to was Ivan - he jumped with the sound of the horn. The bear - he never even flinched...... I guess though as there was nothing up here that appealed to him we saw him amble his way behind the crew house and as yet no new sightings have been reported.

Just a note of interest too - the day after the earthquake in Hawaii we had pretty big - moderate - seas. Could this have been due to quake. There was no wind storms then or later. An interesting point to ponder.

The end of next week Norbie goes into Victoria for some courses. This should be interesting as the time changes that weekend and I will have to get up and do the 3:40am weather. This could be an interesting week for me as I am the type of person that once I am awake I have a devil of a time getting back to sleep. With my luck I will fall asleep just before the alarm goes off to wake me up to do the 6:40am weather!!!! Hey that's why we get paid the big bucks.

Well I guess that's just about all the excitement around here for now. Tomorrow the 212 (the bigger chopper) is due to sling out some "garbage" from the station to the Coast Guard Ship Sir Wilfred Laurier which has returned to the coast after her summer in the Artic. Who knows if it will get down with the weather being unpredictable these days.

Until later....we'll keep the light on.

Hi there Everyone

I finally got Chris to help me set up a blog site which I hope to try and keep updated with stuff happening out here on "the Rock".

Chris and Liz are out here for a visit and so I am getting a chance to hike around and roam on the station without worrying about creatures sneaking up on me.

Last friday we made the trek all the way to Topaltos to clear the entrance to the trail to Beale as people have said it was hard to find - no doubt. The hike was very wet but not too muddy as the ground had been so dry the last rainfall soaked into the ground. We stayed a bit on Topaltos and then went onto Cedar Bay for about half an hour. The hike back was a little faster without me stopping constantly with my clippers to cut back the salal bushes. We came out on a rising tide so got our feet wet crossing the lagoon - we were all too tired to bend over and take off our boots.

Yesterday, we hiked out to the north west direction to the Cape Beale Headland. Hey guys why has Norbie never taken us there before. You end up sitting on a cliff looking out to the mouth of Trevor Channel - to your right is the false gap and "The Gap". The view is just as breathtaking as the one from the front. It really needs some work on the trail as the loggers brought down huge trees over the old water trail which is also the start of the Headland trail. Looks like a job for our July 1 friends - Hey Rog!!!! Boy we will be busy next year.

Today we wandered down to "Shell Beach" - the tides have been high lows so we haven't had much beach time. We wandered around down there and collected glass - I am surprised there is any left with the summer visitors we have had going there and cleaning up the glass.

At lunch today I was looking out the window and there in front of my ever watchful eyes was a grey whale surfacing. I can't remember a time when a grey was here so late in the season. It appeared to be heading north - go figure when all its kind is heading south - actually did so at least a month ago. Who knows what that is about.

Two weeks ago we saw a pod of KWs (orcas) There was about nine in the pod. Quite a treat as it has been two years since I have seen any out here.

Anyhow all this in less than a week - gee maybe this won't be so hard.

Hopefully some of you will sign on and get an idea what we are up to out here. I won't bore you with the beautiful sunny days, and amazing sunsets or days of sideways rain where I sit on the couch and read all day!!! Have I made you toilers in the Big Smoke jealous yet. Don't forget when you guys are have nice sunny days out here we may be having "marshmellow" days where we can't see past the radio building - but we can live with that - cause when it clears the view is breathtaking.

So all you "Visiting Keepers" keep your eyes on this site and hopefully you will be entertained.

Until later ........